Sunday, March 16, 2008

RIP, Cindy Bischof

Things your learn without trying: Winstead "Doodles" Weaver is the uncle of actress Sigourney Weaver. Such are the small nuggets that get tucked away, maybe to be forgotten, or maybe to emerge in conversation someday. Though I have to admit, I can't count the number of times Doodles Weaver has come up in conversation, because it seems like it's been zero. Here's more on the man and his sad end.

Death was also on the front page of the Tribune today, as it often is, though not among faraway peoples fighting byzantine feuds, but in Elmhurst, Ill., a western suburb. The article mentions that the murdered woman, Cindy Bischof, was a real estate broker and leaves it at that. Many readers might assume she sold houses, but in fact she was a commercial real estate broker, more specifically of industrial properties, a field that doesn't have many women participants. I'm fairly sure I interviewed her on the phone at least once, some years ago, as I have so many others.

This is from the brief in Commercial Property News (which I didn't write), published about a week ago: "Cindy Bischof, a principal at Darwin Realty and Development Corp. in Elmhurst, Ill., was the victim of an apparent murder-suicide as she left her office Friday [March 7]. The... perpetrator was her ex-boyfriend... against whom she had filed restraining orders. Bischof entered the industrial real estate business in 1987 and became a recognized force in the industry as a nationally experienced property and tenant/buyer representative... Ms. Bischof joined the Darwin team in 1999 and, in addition to providing brokerage services, she held an important managerial role as Director of Brokerage Services."